The Rules of Attraction
by 6SidedLove
Summary: Written for the Santa Smex exchange - not explicit . There is a fine line between epic rivalry and raging infatuation.


"Game Mizuki-san, da ne! Two games to love! Change court, da ne!"

Why oh why had he ever agreed to let Yanagisawa referee, Mizuki wondered as he headed across the court. He should have just made Kisarazu do it. Kisarazu had complained of a sore throat when Mizuki suggested it, but the way he was standing over there under the referee chair, smirking while Yanagisawa squawked, suggested that he had only done it because he knew it would irritate Mizuki. The pair of them seemed to have made it their very life's work to irritate Mizuki. They were both quite good at it too, in their own ways, but Kisarazu at least had a pretty face and a voice that didn't grate on his eardrums.

"Yo, Mizuki-san, you gonna serve or what?"

No such luck with Yanagisawa. Mizuki glanced up from his irritation and then turned back to face his opponent—a boy from Ginka Chuu whose name he hadn't bothered to remember. He had come to the street courts this afternoon in hopes of running into Fuji Shuusuke, or at the very least someone from Seigaku, but alas, no such luck. It was just so terribly _boring_ crushing these amateurs, and it wasn't helping Mizuki's irritation any.

He won the next two games easily, but had a bit of difficulty with the third, and, probably thanks to a desperation born of his opponent's impending defeat, actually lost the fourth. He could hear Kisarazu chuckling at him from the sidelines as he changed courts again, but he resisted the urge to smack him in the face with his racquet.

The game was 15-all when Mizuki noticed, out of the corner of his eye, the arrival of new observers. Determined to impress, he scored his point within the minute, glancing up as Yanagisawa called out the score to size up his new audience. They wore the steel blue and white of Hyoutei regulars, and Mizuki felt himself grin. Finally, a challenge! With renewed vigor he reapplied himself to the match, finishing it off in five minutes. He shook hands with his opponent and quickly bade him good game before sauntering, as if not too eager, towards the bleachers where the Hyoutei team had arranged themselves. Behind him, a thud and an "Oof, da ne!" suggested that Yanagisawa had jumped down from the referee chair, and a quick glance behind him confirmed that his two teammates had indeed decided to follow him. Well, that was good. It was hardly an entourage, but it was something, at least. The Hyoutei team seemed to have noticed them.

"Rudolph…" Mizuki heard one of them say. "Didn't we crush them in that consolation match?"

Mizuki's left eyebrow twitched.

"Well, well, Atobe-kun," he said, pretending as though he hadn't heard. Behind him, Yanagisawa snorted. _Ass_. "What a pleasant surprise. I had been hoping I would find a challenge here."

Atobe, sitting amidst his teammates, one leg crossed aristocratically over the other, raised a carefully-tended eyebrow. "As had I, Mizuki-kun. But one gets used to disappointment."

Mizuki's eyebrow twitched again. Yanagisawa was still sniggering and Mizuki would have stomped on his foot if it wouldn't only cause him to be loud again. "What do you say, Atobe-kun? A friendly match?"

Atobe shrugged his shoulders. "Ore-sama is only here to observe, for the moment. As for the rest of my team, it is up to them."

Mizuki tried not to scowl. So Atobe did not consider him a worthy opponent? A grave oversight, to be sure!

"Oi, Yuushi." Before Mizuki could say anything further, the little redheaded one jumped down from the bleachers and approached the three of them, managing somehow to look down his nose at them despite his height. _Brat_. "I'd be up for a match," he continued. "You?"

"Mm," his partner nodded. "That could be fun."

Mizuki seethed internally. First Atobe had rejected him, and now he was being ignored. Fine. Oh, Kisarazu was smirking at him again. _Insufferable_.

"Hey Mizuki-san, whaddaya say?"

"It's entirely up to you," Mizuki huffed. "I'm going to go wash my face." He turned on his heel and stalked off toward the fountains at the other end of the courts, trying to tune out the sound of Yanagisawa whining about something or other. Again.

Belatedly it occurred to him that perhaps Kisarazu had been inviting him to be his partner for the match. But it didn't matter, he thought quickly. He was still too irritated, and his doubles skills were woefully rusty. Atobe already had the gall to be unimpressed with him—playing in this match would not ameliorate the situation any.

That bastard Atobe, Mizuki fumed as he splashed his face with water from the faucet. Who did he think he was, dismissing him out of hand? Afraid to get his hands dirty, most likely. He was almost as bad as that bastard Fuji Shuusuke, his eternal rival.

That was it, Mizuki decided, clenching his fists against the stone sides of the fountain. He was going to get Atobe to face him, and when that happened, he was going to take him down.

"Hmm, yes, this is good, very good." Mizuki let his binoculars down on their strap around his neck and quickly jotted his observations down in his notebook. He chuckled to himself. "Oh, I'll show him. He has no idea what's coming."

Behind him, he felt Kisarazu suddenly shift and lean over his shoulder. "Atobe-kun takes his tea with milk and two sugars," he read aloud. "And how, exactly, is that going to help you beat him?"

Mizuki quickly held his notebook to his chest before Kisarazu could read any more of it (it didn't matter what they contained, his private notes were _private_) and turned awkwardly to face his companion. "It's called _data collection_, Kisarazu-kun. If you knew anything about it you would _know_, anything can become important."

"Right. Most people call it stalking, though. What with the hiding in the bushes and all. You're getting almost as bad as you do about Yuuta's brother. Do you always go around getting huge boners for people who dis you?"

"Excuse me?" Mizuki braced his hand against the ground behind him to keep his balance, hoping Kisarazu wouldn't notice the face that he had initially glanced down at his lap at his words. It was just a _reflex_, like turning when someone shouts 'What is _that_?' "Kisarazu-kun, that is inappropriate. Not to mention untrue."

Kisarazu snorted. "Right, whatever you say."

"Fuji Shuusuke is my _eternal rival_," Mizuki sighed, exasperated with Kisarazu's immaturity. "I do not have a 'huge boner' for him."

Kisarazu snorted again, and Mizuki found himself wanting to pinch the boy's nose shut. "You'd do Yuuta's whole family if they'd let you."

Mizuki stared at him for a moment and then turned around again, muttering "Oh _honestly_" under his breath as he picked up his binoculars again. He wasn't sure exactly why he had even asked Kisarazu to come along with him on his espionage mission, except that Yuuta had gone home for the weekend and he always did like to have a second pair of eyes and ears in case he missed anything important.

Kisarazu was leaning over him again, planting his fingers in the dirt beside Mizuki's left shoe to keep himself upright. He was practically breathing into Mizuki's ear, and one of the wings of his collar tickled the back of Mizuki's neck, making the tiny hairs there bristle as a chill ran down his spine. He was about to ask if Kisarazu had ever heard of the concept of _personal space_, but Kisarazu spoke first.

"Aren't you going to take notes on how many times he chews each bite?" he asked impertinently.

Without taking his eyes off Atobe Mizuki lifted his toes, pivoting his heel to bring the front of his shoe down neatly on Kisarazu's fingers.

"Ow!" Kisarazu yelped, pitching forward suddenly as his balance was disrupted and going down, Mizuki beneath him.

"You idiot!" Mizuki hissed, trying to quickly shove the other boy off of him and get up before—

It was too late. The sound of footsteps made them both freeze, and suddenly Mizuki was being dragged upwards by his wrist and brought level with Atobe's smirking face.

"Well, well, what have we here?" Atobe drawled, and Mizuki squirmed in his grip. "Spying on me, Mizuki-kun?" His free hand traced along the edge of Mizuki's binoculars. "Unless you came all the way out here just to shag your teammate, ahn?"

"We were _not_—" Mizuki spluttered, and Atobe laughed. Out of the corner of his eye, Mizuki could see Kisarazu dusting the dirt off his knees and edging back toward the hedge they had been hiding in. Atobe seemed to be ignoring him. That just wasn't _fair_. After all, _both_ of them were trespassing. And it was Kisarazu that had yelled and brought attention to them in the first place. He should be the one being punished!

"Are you still upset that I wouldn't play you yesterday?" Atobe continued, stroking the inside of Mizuki's wrist with his thumb. "Are you really such a sore loser before you even lose?"

Mizuki bristled indignantly, trying to ignore the pain of Atobe twisting his wrist, or the way the other boy was stroking his pulse-point. "You have _severely_ underestimated me, Atobe-kun."

"Oh, I'm quite sure I did. I didn't think even you would have the audacity to spy on me in my own home." Atobe smirked again. "I ought to have you arrested for trespassing," he said. "Both of you."

Mizuki heard Kisarazu swear under his breath, and he scowled at the boy's insolence. Didn't he realize this was all his fault in the first place?

Keeping his hold on Mizuki's wrist, Atobe bent to pick up the notebook Mizuki had dropped, leafing through it one-handed. "But I won't," he said absently, his eyes raking over pages of Mizuki's neat block handwriting. Mizuki felt violated. "Ore-sama is very generous with those who have good taste."

"Good taste?" Mizuki couldn't help asking, though he immediately felt stupid for it. Of course he had good taste. He just hadn't expected someone like Atobe to recognize it.

"You're obviously attracted to me."

"W-_what_?" Mizuki seethed. Did _nobody_ recognize the (very obvious) difference between rivalry and attraction? It was as if everyone else's heads were planted firmly in the gutter and Mizuki was the only sane one left. "I most certainly am _not_!"

"He is, though," Kisarazu added unhelpfully, and Mizuki twisted around to glare daggers at him. Oh, he would so pay for that when they got back to school. Atobe merely chuckled, doubling the slim notebook in his hand and tucking it into his back pocket before reaching around to take Mizuki by the chin and swivel his head back to face him.

"So what do you say, Mizuki-kun?" Atobe went on. "Your friend can even watch, if he likes."

Mizuki finally twisted away from Atobe's grip and held his hands clenched at his sides, all furious indignation and wounded dignity. "Bite me," he spat.

Atobe's face twisted into a wicked grin as he brought his hands up to Mizuki's shoulders and clamped firmly down on them. "You did insist," he murmured, leaning in against Mizuki's neck and biting down, hard, on the ridge of his collarbone. Mizuki hissed in pain and pleasure, biting his own lip and squeezing his eyes shut as he put both his hands against Atobe's chest and tried to push him away. Atobe moved his mouth and bit down again, pulling one hand away from his shoulder and letting it move downward, cupping Mizuki's groin and making him realize, to his horror, that he was already partly hard. Infuriated, Mizuki drew back and slapped Atobe hard across the face.

"How dare you?"

Atobe drew himself up to his full height again, glaring down at Mizuki with a steely expression, though the effect was slightly ruined by the hand he had brought to his cheek.

"You both have five minutes to get out of here, the way you came," Atobe said coldly, "Before I will call security."

"Hmph!" Mizuki huffed, turning on his heel and stalking back toward the bushes, grabbing Kisarazu roughly by the ear as he passed. The idea of leaving his notebook behind in enemy hands absolutely pained him, but he was not going to give Atobe the satisfaction of asking for it back. He would have to resort to other methods. Later.

He knew Atobe was watching them leave, to find out how they had breached his security, and he purposefully twitched his ass as he hoisted himself over the fence. It was obviously Atobe who was attracted to him, anyway, not the other way around.

Once on the ground on the other side of the fence, Mizuki slapped Kisarazu as well, just for good measure.

"Damnit, ow, Mizuki!" Kisarazu yelped again. "What was that for?"

"What was it _for_? It was _your_ fault we got caught." Mizuki fumed.

"You stepped on my fingers," Kisarazu protested. "And _you_ were the one who dragged me here in the first place." He rolled his eyes. "If you could just jerk off in your room like a normal person, you wouldn't have had this problem."

"Kisarazu-kun for the _last time_—"

"Mizuki." Kisarazu held up his hand to cut him off. "You _still_ have a raging boner for him. Don't even try to deny it."

Mizuki glanced down again, even though he already knew that Kisarazu's words were true. "Well," he said, weighing his options over in his head. "Are _you_ going to do something about it?"

Kisarazu seemed to consider it for a moment.

"If you were a gentleman you'd buy me dinner first," he said.

Mizuki pursed his lips. "Afterward," he finally agreed. "And nowhere too expensive."

Kisarazu grinned. "Deal."


End file.
